3rd Sunday of Easter, B April 14, 2024
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
It’s a funny thing, being a priest. All the time, I don’t have to say or do anything for people respond differently to me. Double-takes, subtle changes in posture, eagerness to talk to me or to avoid me, hearing the same jokes over and over. Without me even thinking about correcting them, people will apologize for cursing in front of me. Sometimes I do ask but even when I don’t, people will volunteer why they don’t come to Mass. One I hear often: “I don’t go to Church because I’m afraid I’ll catch on fire when I walk in!”
Funny, sure but also no! Please reject the lie that you have to be free of sin to come to Jesus. If there’s ever been a voice inside or out that said “you can’t go to Church, you sin too much,” ignore it! I am here… you should be here because of our failures, not despite them. Even if you cannot receive communion yet, you always come to the Lord! We don’t escape sin to earn Jesus. It is Jesus who makes escape from sin possible.
That’s what St. John is getting at in the 2nd reading. From the very beginning, people have misunderstood what it means to be a good Christian. One extreme is the assumption that everyone goes to heaven simply by saying they know Jesus. That’s why St. John writes “Those who say, ‘I know him,’ but do not keep his commandments are liars, and the truth is not in them.” The commandments really do matter.
On the other extreme, people read that exact same sentence and get stuck with this idea that Jesus is saying “stop sinning and then I’ll reward you with my friendship.” It turns into the mentality that we have to really beat ourselves up, try very hard not to sin, and beg for forgiveness to have even a tiny chance of escaping hell and sliding into purgatory. But that idea is far too fearful and negative. It sees the commandments as a burden and it’s not what we see with the Apostles.
When Jesus suddenly pops into the upper room, are the Apostles “keeping his commandments?” They denied him, ran from the crucifixion, are hiding in fear, and now refuse to believe the news of the resurrection. Would you say they “know him” like St. John talks about in the second reading? No, Jesus doesn’t come to them because they’ve avoided sin, but because they haven’t! The way Jesus comes to them so they can hear, see, and even touch him shows us that this is not about escaping God’s wrath, but accepting his love.
It’s not a harmless, be nice to everyone kind of love. It is a raging fire of intense desire for all that is good. The love of God does not settle, does not stop. It is a love that sees everything of who we are and passionately works to make all of it into the best it can be. This kind of transforming, growing, purifying love is sometimes much scarier than a straightforward punishment. A punishment might hurt, but it doesn’t find its way inside of me to stretch my heart and expose my wounds the way that God’s unyielding love does.
This is what St. John is talking about when he says “the love of God is truly perfected” in those who “keep his word.” It’s not like a perfect score on the SATs or a gymnastics competition. No, it is a perfection of freedom, a perfection of freely choosing to make every decision, every experience, every relationship flow from authentic love and come back to love. After all, the commandment of Jesus that St. John is talking about is not just the Ten Commandments. It is the New Commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.”
But we cannot love like that before we have Jesus. This is why St. John starts by reassuring us that we have Jesus as an “advocate” to forgive us if we sin. When he says “the truth is not in” those who break the commandments, he’s not saying we get the truth by avoiding sin, but that we can’t avoid sin unless we have the truth. It’s a diagnosis! You know Jesus but keep sinning? You must not have enough truth in you! And Jesus the divine physician has just the cure: himself! He is the way, the truth and the life. When Jesus goes to the upper room, it isn’t because the apostles have enough love and truth, but because they need more! “Hear, see, touch me so you can be free of sin and fear!”
There are ultimately two reasons we don’t escape our sins. One is that we don’t want to. If we won’t acknowledge our sins as sin or if we want to stay in sin… then we will. The other reason we don’t escape sin is because we try to do it on our own… to do it without truth in us, without love in us, without Jesus in us.
And we see this in action with St. Peter’s speech to the crowd in the first reading. He does convict them, pointing how just how badly they’ve sinned, yes, but he also says “I know… that you acted out of ignorance.” In other words, they did not have the truth in them. St. Peter exhorts them to “repent… and be converted,” but he does that because he offers them Jesus who is the truth. It is the encounter with Jesus, the possibility of having him in us that makes repentance possible.
Knowing Jesus is not just knowledge of the facts. We are not as ignorant as the Jewish leaders who killed Jesus, but we still often do not have the truth in us. Peter can offer the crowds Jesus because he has seen, heard, and touched Jesus so that the crowds can hear, see, and touch Jesus in and through Peter and the Church.
Even though Jesus won’t physically appear to us to eat some fish and be poked and prodded by us, we do still have the chance to hear, see, and touch him in the Church so that he can be in each of us.
I hear him when members of this parish sacrifice time, talent, and treasure to teach, serve, care for the parish, and provide for the poor. I see him in our catechism program and parish events where people of all ages who aren’t even related to each other share their faith, encourage each other, and simply enjoy the fact that we belong to each other by faith. I touch him when people approach the sacraments, not just going through the motions, but engaging with the words and gestures of baptism and confession and communion. Repentance is a must. Avoiding sin is essential. Getting to heaven and spending eternity with Jesus is the goal. But Jesus is also the way to that goal, the truth that sets us free, and the life that is worth living. Christianity is difficult, suffering is unavoidable, and some of our faults will linger until the day we die. Yet Catholicism is the most joyful, meaningful, wonderful life possible on this earth… if you know, really know Jesus. Hear him as he offers you mercy, see him in the love of his disciples, touch him in the sacraments, and know that what he commands is not a burden, but a gift